


The Fire Once in Me

by ringoame



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Christmas, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 03:45:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5524208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ringoame/pseuds/ringoame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Studying music at an American college, a stroll beneath the Christmas lights has Maki feeling nostalgic. (Love Live Secret Santa gift for Kararayofpriderock on tumblr!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fire Once in Me

Normally, Maki would head straight home after class, but tonight something led her downtown instead: strings of bright Christmas lights, draped across the streetlights and telephone poles, lit up for the first time this season. She supposed she had shopping to do, anyway. Had to buy gifts for her friends, and packages in which to send them off to their faraway homes. She left the Berklee campus and headed deeper into the city, tucking her long hair into her scarf.

Breathing a long sigh, Maki remembered seeing her breath bloom into white clouds on a night like tonight. It wasn’t snowing now, but she could easily picture it: The nine of them together, the warmth of excitement and dance banishing the cold as they… But that was years ago now, and she cut off the memory at once.

Yet, in spite of herself, she thought she heard singing. Was she that caught up in her reminiscing? No, it wasn’t her imagination – turning a corner, she saw a makeshift stage occupied by a few young girls, singing their hearts out to a mostly inattentive crowd. Maki thought she recognized a few of their outfits from Kotori’s international clothing line, and used that as an excuse to herself to draw a bit closer. Their lyrics spoke of hope, redemption, warm reunions. And Christmas lights bringing people together. Their voices rallied in harmony by the end, and a sizeable audience clapped along with Maki when the song was finished.

Walking away as the crowd dispersed, Maki hummed the last few bars to herself absently, trying to remember the meanings of a few of the words before they slipped away. _Light up the fire once in me…_ Then, instead, she found herself thinking of something else entirely – words she had refused to think about as she threw herself into the study of music. Afraid to admit that there was music that had been with her all along.

As her mind wandered, her hand went to her cell phone, and she pulled off her glove so that she could more easily press the little icon of a pink rabbit that a friend had put there years ago.

Her screen lit up almost immediately with the grainy image of an uncomfortably close face, with narrowed eyes. “So you finally come crawling back to me, huh?”

“You sure answered quickly,” Maki countered coolly, trying to appear calm as she found the nearest bench and sat down shakily.

“S-shut up! It was just a coincidence that I was looking at my phone. How are you? How’s America?”

“Fine, fine.” Maki took a deep breath. “I mean, it’s great. But uh… I was just thinking about what you mentioned last time we talked.”

Even on her phone’s tiny, dim screen, Maki could see Nico’s eyes light up. “Really? You’ll do it?!”

“Well… maybe. Let’s just start with one song for now. I’ve been working on some lyrics,” Maki admitted.

“Makiiii!” Nico looked teary-eyed for a moment, but she quickly replaced it with her classic façade of snooty indifference (which Maki could still see right through after all these years). “Well, I guess if that’s the case, I don’t mind taking a quick look. Are you coming here, then?”

Maki hesitated. It was a week away, and ticket prices would be insane, but…

“…yeah. I’ll be home for Christmas.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this song with the Coldplay song “Christmas Lights” in mind and in the process I found out that I’ve been mishearing the lyrics this whole time! “Light up the fireworks in me”, not “fire once in me”. Oh well, we'll say Maki misheard it too (she has a better excuse). Happy holidays to Kararayofpriderock and to Love Live fans everywhere! <3 (This isn't necessarily meant to be shippy, but you can most certainly take it that way~)


End file.
